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Whenever I go to a restaurant I see a Libro de Reclamaciones which I believe it's something like a Book of Complaints. I thought the direct translation of complaint was in fact reclamo or queja. In this case, they are using plural so Libro de Reclamos was the first thing I came up with.

Why not use Libro de Reclamos? Are they synonyms or is context dependant?

So the main difference is that reclamo has nothing to do with a complaint.

Now, colloquially there is a slim difference between the two that are widely used as synonyms.

Reclamación is referring to the action of doing a complaint. Complaining even if the translation is not literally that. You could totally use Libro de reclamos and the one they used is correct too (at least colloquially).

I think it depends on the region, or some obscure grammatical usage referring to the preference of actions.

In any case I am very surprised that reclamo isn't a queja. Only definition that gets close to it is "Voz o grito con que se llama a alguien".

As per comments I think that reclamo is really used as origin of the conjugation of reclamar.

Now I think it is a mere coincidence that reclamo is a word all by itself and that the conjugation of reclamar is reclamo.

You can see that on the definition of reclamar that it is to challenge something, or to ask for your rights.

The main difference is that reclamación is explicitly to correct something that was done wrongly, or something that was perceived as unfair. Or to oppose to it, to make a complaint against it. And that reclamar is only the action of doing so, maybe the action is not reinvindicating something that was unfair, it may only be a complaint about the place being too clean.

To make myself clear: All reclamaciones are complaints but not all "yo reclamo" are complaints. (I conjugated it to make clear that they are different as just a noun)

Maybe it's regional because the only way I use reclamo related with complaints it's as the first person singular of the verb "reclamar" and "libro de reclamos" sounds wrong to me.
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LauraFeb 1 '12 at 21:19

@Laura Interesting, sounds wrong to you. Where do you come from? To me it sounds quite good, but I see it is a regionalism now... Have you heard reclamo used for complaints? I'll complete my answer.
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Joze♦Feb 1 '12 at 21:28

I'm from Spain (Mallorca) and, as I said "reclamo" used for complaint just as the first person singular of the present simple of "reclamar" (Yo reclamo, Tu reclamas...).
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LauraFeb 1 '12 at 21:48

Thanks Laura, I addressed it on the answer. I think you are right, and I don't htink it is only a regionalism.
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Joze♦Feb 1 '12 at 22:08

I'm from Peru and people normally use Vengo a presentar un reclamo instead of Vengo a presentar una reclamación. And please @Joze don't apologize for your long answer because it's a really good one :)
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CésarFeb 1 '12 at 22:28